Greek Life on Campus

The speaker discusses their personal experience and reasons for joining a fraternity at Texas Tech. They talk about the support and opportunities they have gained from being a part of Greek life, such as a support group, like-minded individuals, leadership roles, and connections with alumni. They also mention the responsibilities they have taken on within their fraternity. They then interview someone named Carson, who is not in a fraternity, to get a different perspective. Carson explains that he was not approached about Greek life when he first got to Texas Tech, but he has been around students who are involved in it. Alrighty, so today we're going to be talking about why you should join Greek life here at Texas Tech. I'm going to give a brief introduction on my personal experience and why I joined and then I'm going to be interviewing Carson who is not in a fraternity and Ty who is in my fraternity just to try and get different outlooks, different point of views on the subject. So when I got to Texas Tech, I had a lot of people in my life influencing me to be a part of a Greek organization. This kind of prompted me to look further into it last spring semester. After looking more into it, I decided that this was the right choice for me and I ended up rushing a fraternity here, Phi Kappa Psi. Looking back, I can confidently say that this was the right decision for me. It has provided me with experiences and opportunities that I would not have otherwise. This is not without its downfalls, which is why I wanted to explore the question, what are the pros of making it worth joining? What are the cons that would deter a student from joining? My experience, just to give a brief summary of what it's offered me, has been nothing short of amazing. It has offered me a support group that I can depend on in times of need. There's been multiple examples where I've been struggling with life, whether that be financially, mentally, or even physically, where my brothers have came and helped me out. It has also allowed me to surround myself with a lot of like-minded individuals that have helped me prosper with the goals I've set for myself. Through this, it inspired me to take leadership roles within the fraternity. Last fall, I was appointed brotherhood chair. Basically that gives me the responsibility of organizing brotherhood events, which are all-guy events within the fraternity that just kind of allow us to connect with each other and strengthen the bonds between us. This year, I was appointed sergeant of arms as well as housing chair. Through sergeant of arms, my responsibility is making sure everyone's safe and behaving at our events. It has taught me responsibility over others, as well as patience in dealing with people. Housing chair, my responsibility is basically just keeping maintenance with the fraternity lodge. The lodge is a place that we have where we can gather as brothers and also throw events. It has taught me valuable skills in trades, working with my hands, and the brothers have been nothing short of helpful, assisting me learning new skills or manual labor. Through these positions, I've been able to connect with alumni as well within our fraternity. These connections with successful people in the real world allow that much more of a support group. If I'm having issues with something and needing advice that one of my peers cannot help me with, I do know that I can reach out to older alumni and find the answers. With that being said, my experience has been great, but I kind of wanted to get the outlook of other people. We'll start first with Carson. Carson, you can introduce yourself real quick. Hello, my name's Carson, and I'm a third-year student here at Tech. I'm excited to now join the fraternity. Do you mind if I ask a question here? All righty, Carson. So, when you first got here to Tech, that first semester of freshman year, were you approached or talked to about Greek life by anybody? No, but to be fair, me and my buddies, everyone around here has been kind of around students and whatnot. The only time I'd say I was approached by it was my buddy's cousin at the time was a sophomore, I believe. He was a sophomore in high school. He was a sophomore in high school. He was a sophomore in high school. He was a sophomore in high school. He was a sophomore in high school. He was a sophomore in high school. He was a sophomore in high school. He was a sophomore in high school. He was a sophomore in high school. He was a sophomore in high school. He was a sophomore in high school. He was a sophomore in high school. He was a sophomore in high school. He was a sophomore in high school. He was a sophomore in high school. 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Would you say that's accurate? Yes. How has Greek life impacted your life as a student here at Texas Tech? Socially, academically, and financially. Socially is at the peak of my life. I have never really known this many people at one school. I know a lot of people across Texas, but getting to meet people in fraternity from all over and even outside of the state, it's just been an awesome moment. Yeah, for sure. So I have some statistics here that I would like to read, and I was just wanting to know if you believe with your experience that that's accurate. So according to nickfraternity.org, research found that first to second year retention among students that are in sororities or fraternities hit 93% compared to the 82% of non-members. Similar studies show that members are 20% more likely to graduate, which is critical as men are attending college and graduating with less frequency in the past. So basically, off of those statistics, it's saying that if you're in a fraternity, you're more likely to see college through. So to not drop that first and second year and to reach the end goal for everybody, which is graduation. With your experience, do you believe that those statistics are accurate or inaccurate? I do. I do. I see, from our personal aspect, the brotherhood that you gain from it. I feel like you want to really stick it through those guys, not pushing each other to continue to graduate. And I feel like someone who maybe just isn't as involved, saying they're not a very self-motivated person and they decided to not join a social club like you would be calling it as a fraternity, I would say their chances of graduating would be slightly less accurate to go through with it. Yeah, yeah, for sure. So within Phi Psi, in terms of academic goals, do you feel like the fraternity itself has given you maybe resources or support in achieving your academic goals? I would definitely agree, though, that they have helped. But I would say more so when you're in a class shift only. No one's really checking up on you when you're initiated, when you're inactive. So you're kind of a grown man at that point. You really need to have those traits embedded in you during the class shift that we were learning. And I think that Phi Psi did a great job of doing that. So that's it. So expanding on that, what are some examples in terms of the support and resources during your experience as a pledge for Phi Psi that maybe helped motivate you or helped get you to your academic goals? So mandatory grade shifts is one thing. It's huge. It pushed me to that next shift. I've got to keep this up. I've got to keep this up. It pushed me. I would say planners as well really said everything. I wasn't really as busy as I was in the pledge shift. And it let me know I needed to get it done. And I could look at that whenever and just have that plan and say it's done. Other than that, definitely it's like times where we would all meet up in the pledge class and study and get homework done. And in that level, I knocked out all my homework almost every session we had. Yeah, that's awesome. So between the actives helping you plan your schedule and your weekly schedules and day-to-day, the study time that you and your pledge class got, which I'm sure allowed you all to bond, as well as the grade checks just kind of motivating you and having somebody hold you accountable if you felt like that kept you on track academically. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. So I have another statistic here that I was wanting to get your two cents on. According to HinchingerReport.org, more than half of fraternity and sorority alumni said that they had a job immediately after or within two months of graduating college compared to only 30% of unaffiliated college graduates being able to find that job immediately after or within that two-month mark. Do you feel as though Phi Psi has provided you connections to where you're confident that moving forward in life after college, you'll be able to secure a job that you want? Yeah, 100%. And I would say that I'm living proof of that. Through our alumni networking program, we have scheduled calls where, I mean, it's networking at the end of the day. Like, you're meeting people, and it's not about what to know to know. And that's the best way to do that is by joining a fraternity, I would say. And yeah, the connections have definitely been there. And my mentor actually just helped secure me my first summer internship. Yeah, that's awesome. So within Phi Psi, have you had the opportunity to step into leadership roles? Yes, I have sorority relations. So basically, all that I did, I was in charge of communicating with the sororities and getting their pledges to meet up with our pledges and basically have what is called a mixture. And just some activity, like our last movie date was a bonfire and s'mores. And all the girls and all the guys were just together and doing that. It's a great time. So I'm basically the overseer of that. And every relationship you need to have with a sorority. How do you think that has helped you, not helped the fraternity, but helped you as a person, even leaving the fraternity later in life? Generally, just talking to people. Like knowing how to talk to people and just be able to make that connection with someone and really getting people like you to help influence the decision. And that's part of the strategy for being a sorority as well. But that's definitely a huge thing for me. So just community outreach and communication. Yeah. Okay. So what would you say to somebody that's maybe on the fence about looking into a fraternity? Maybe some advice you can give them to see if it is right for them or not. I would say just do it, man. And if it isn't for you and you end up in some life case, there's nothing wrong with that. It's perfectly fine. There's nothing against that. If you don't end up in a life case, you can leave. You don't have to stay in the fraternity. No one will hate you or disrespect you for it. It's just your decision. But I would say give it a shot. Okay. So with that being said, I just kind of wanted to go back to Carson after you were able to hear all of that. After hearing kind of myself and Ty's experience within the fraternity, has it maybe changed your mind in looking into joining one? Oh, yeah. I mean, he gave me some good insights, I mean, as well as you, but I like his point of view, his perspective as in networking and staying on those connections. And he mentioned his mentor just got his first summer internship. That's pretty incredible. That's great. I mean, so that would have been something that I would – yes, so that networking. If I had known that maybe a little bit more, more so in depth before, that might have helped intrigue me and that would have been on my plate as in deciding whether or not to join a fraternity. Yeah, for sure. So if you were to join one right now, what would be some things like within the fraternity that you would look for that appeal to you that would kind of help you make that decision to go with this fraternity over another one? Yeah, for sure. I would look into, I guess you could say, core values that each fraternity would have, I guess, set for them and expectations and what standards are set for them. That's what I would look into. Maybe see if the fraternity is too big or if I want to join, let's say, a smaller frat. So I would look up, try to see the size and whatnot. So those would probably be most of the things I would look into. Yeah. Joining a frat. For sure. And if you had to give the listener advice from somebody who is a nonmember at Tech on whether or not they should join the fraternity, what kind of advice would you give them to kind of help them be confident in making that decision? Think about it, sleep on it, and don't try to make a decision right the minute there. So definitely sleep on it, maybe take a couple of days. Because, I mean, it's a while before rushing starts anyhow, so just don't, I guess, rush, so to speak, in your decision. And Ty's advice was great, so I'd have to back him on that. But he said, join it, and if you don't like it, there's nothing wrong with that, and you can leave, and that's your own choice. So I'd say, yeah, that's it. For sure, guys. Well, I appreciate getting both of y'all's perspective, and it was a pleasure talking to y'all. Thank you. Yes, sir.